Elsevier

Eating Behaviors

Volume 7, Issue 4, November 2006, Pages 423-426
Eating Behaviors

Short communication
Beliefs and their relationship to eating attitudes and depressive symptoms in men

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2005.11.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

The applicability of the cognitive model of eating disorders, particularly the role of deeper level beliefs, has not yet been investigated in men. The current study investigated the relationship between negative self-beliefs, underlying assumptions about weight, shape and eating, eating attitudes and depressive symptoms in a student sample of young men.

Method

Fifty-six young male students completed self-report questionnaires, including measures of deeper level beliefs previously found to be typical of women with eating disorders and women with disturbed eating attitudes.

Results

Eating attitudes in the student sample of young men were best predicted by one underlying assumption, i.e. control over eating. Depressive symptoms were best predicted by negative self-beliefs.

Conclusion

Negative self-beliefs and underlying assumptions about weight, shape and eating relate to eating attitudes and depressive symptoms in a student sample of young men as would be predicted by cognitive theory. Cognitive models of eating disorders, particularly those incorporating deeper level beliefs may, therefore, be applicable to young men.

Section snippets

Beliefs and their relationship to eating disorder attitudes and depressive symptoms in men

There has been relatively little research into eating disorders and its symptoms in men compared to women (McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2004). Research on clinical populations is difficult to conduct because few men with eating disorders present to services (Soundy, Lucas, Suman, & Melton, 1995); and because numbers appear relatively small in comparison with those in women (Striegel-Moore, Garvin, Dohm, & Rosenheck, 1999). One aspect that has not been studied is the applicability of the cognitive

Participants

Participants were 56 male student volunteers recruited from lectures, seminars and student groups. The mean age was 20.1 (S.D. = 3.2) and the mean BMI was 22.6 (S.D. = 2.7). Females were excluded. There were no other exclusion criteria.

Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire (EDBQ: Cooper et al., 1997)

This measures assesses negative self or core beliefs and three types of underlying assumption hypothesised to be important in revised cognitive models of eating disorders (e.g. Cooper, Wells & Todd, 2004), and found to be characteristic of women with eating

Design

A cross-sectional design was employed. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to investigate the two research questions.

Descriptive information

Mean EAT score for the whole sample was 6.6 (S.D. = 7.1); mean BDI score was 6.9 (S.D. = 5.8) and mean RSE score was 31.0 (S.D. = 5.3). Two men scored above the EAT cut off of 30, indicating a possible eating disorder diagnosis (Garner & Garfinkel, 1979).

Question 1: are high levels of underlying assumptions about weight, shape and eating specific predictors of eating attitudes?

The analysis conducted in Cooper et al. (1997) to investigate predictors of EAT score in a nonclinical sample of women was

Discussion

The pattern of results obtained in young men in the current study was very similar to that obtained in young women in the study conducted by Cooper et al. (1997). This provides preliminary evidence that the EDBQ is a useful measure of negative self-beliefs and underlying assumptions related to eating, weight and shape in young men, and, crucially, that it predicts eating attitudes and depressive symptoms in a similar and very specific way, as would be predicted by cognitive theory.

The one

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